Community-based Green project: 2019-2020

One year report: Community-based Green project

One year report: Community-based Green project

2019-20

Limbe Wildlife Centre: Community-Based Green project 2019-20

by Peggy MOTSCH, Manager (Limbe Wildlife Centre) Published in November 2020 Limbe Wildlife Centre, P.O. Box 878, Limbe, Republic of Cameroon

Limbe Wildlife Centre is a collaborative effort between Pandrillus Foundation and the Republic of Cameroon, Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, MINFOF Pandrillus Foundation is a non-profit making NGO specialized in the protection, rehabilitation and reintroduction of primates, as well as management and sustainable financing of conservation projects in Africa.

Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife is in charge of implementing the national forest policy for ensuring sustainable management and conservation of wildlife and biodiversity over the national territory as enacted by forestry law No. 01/94 of 20 January which regulates all forestry, wildlife and fisheries activities

peggy@limbewildlife.org limbewildlifecentre

+237 698 87 70 02 limbewildlife

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limbewildlife.org limbewildlife

One year report: Community-based Green project

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Content

SUMMARY INDICATORS OF SUCCESS OF THE GREEN PROJECT OUR WILDLIFE POPULATION BENEFITING FROM THE PROJECT FINANCIAL BREAKDOWN FUTURE GOALS & OBJECTIVES

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One year report: Community-based Green project

Project rationale. Communities are central to our conservation approach.

Although they are also largely responsible for the depletion of wildlife population and forest encroachment, it is mostly because of a lack of understanding, lack of an alternative to generate incomes and sustain their families. For years, the Limbe Wildlife Centre, through Pandrillus and with the support of many international donors among which New England Biolabs Foundation, Save the Drill, Colombus Zoo, and others supported the community by purchasing a large proportion of green food for the Batoke community, which neighbors the unique Mount Cameroon National Park. This project was created to provide alternative livelihoods to hunting and animal trading by employing the local community to provide wild and domestic plants to our primates. Our communitybased project for the sustainable management of natural resources aka “Green� project includes two activities: 1/ Harvesting wild herbaceous plant

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sustainably as a way to sustainably feed the wildlife in rehabilitation and financially support the local community; 2/ Increasing land value by purchasing crop by-products to women farmers as a way to reduce encroachment into the Mount Cameroon National Park.

Concept. The Green Project is hence a long-term community-based project that generates new alternative incomes for a hunting community while providing highvalue foods that enhance the diet, health, and well-being of the Primates rehabilitated at the Limbe Wildlife Centre (LWC). In this project, members of the community of the Batoke village are organized in Association working together in partnership with the LWC. The activity of the Association consists of providing each week a specific amount and diversity of plants to the LWC, which organizes the transport, control and payment. The prices have been fixed by consensus between both Parties and therefore are fair, high

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One year report: Community-based Green project

and regular enough to alleviate local poverty. Ultimately, these incomes encourage the villagers to reduce the pressure on the surrounding wildlife and allow them to enhance both education and health care to their children.

This year, we achieved the first year of a new project as part of our community outreach and education program. The Batoke Family Nature Club aimed to bring families together to understand more about the environmental challenges and to engage the community members to protect wildlife. Each month, our education team organized a set of activities around an important subject i.e. plastic pollution, forest ecosystem to enhancing the knowledge, skills and attitudes of the community towards the nature around them. Perhaps for the first time in their lives, they will learn about and actively participate in various activities relating to conservation.

This project is the next logical step towards achieving our long-term goal of creating a conservation community and to identify key individuals within the community who can undertake real conservation action in future years.

Results. For the past year, 12,308,421XAF (22,379 USD) have been generated to the community (+18% compared to last year) and divided between a total of 167 members against 157 last year (+6%), of which 110 permanent members instead of 108 last year (+2%). Women in charge of the harvesting of crop by-products are

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getting more interested and involved every year, the number of participants raised from 80 to 83 (+4%). Due to the COVID 19 pandemic raging around the world and affecting our operations since March 2020, the number of women has not significantly increased to limit the number of new members to which our education team would not be able to provide adequate training. Similarly, due to the current socio-political crisis and security issues in the Anglophone regions of Cameroon, the number of men harvesting wild plants has not increased this year but stabilized at 27 (-4%).

The increase of interest and participants to the project, either permanently or punctually, has contributed to increasing the amount of browse we provided to improve the health and well-being of our animals. A total of 94.41 tons of fresh cropby product leaves (46% papaya, 42% potato, 12% cassava) and 16.99 tons of wild herbaceous plants of the wild ginger family Zingiberaceae (62% of Aframomum sp. and 38% of Costus. sp) were brought to the animals every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday every month, without interruption, contributing to enhancing the health of animals, the time spent foraging and stimulating social interactions and well-being. Besides, 5.8 tons of Trumpet wood were provided as enrichment, corresponding to âˆź1,200 reproductive organs cut manually to reduce the spread of this invasive plant in South West Cameroon.

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One year report: Community-based Green project

A strong community partnership was weakened by the COVID-19 pandemic.

While last year and at the beginning of this year our education implemented pieces of training in wildlife monitoring, understanding of biodiversity and fragility of the ecosystem through our Batoke Family Nature Club, the lack of funds and then the pandemic limited our capacity to conduct meetings with the community. As the sanitary situation and restrictions are being eased, meetings with the community will resume in November 2020.

Meanwhile, we needed to sustain the community during this very hard time.

Despite financial difficulties resting from loss of sponsorship by international organizations and a financial deficit that reached 100,000 USD, we have guaranteed enough funds to maintain or even increase the amount of food and as a result, our financial support to the community increased and helped the members to face the pandemic and be prepared. We also organized a short meeting and distributed

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face masks in a process to raise awareness of the disease and how to prevent its transmission.

Future development. Next year, we wish to resume the Batoke Family Nature Club to strengthen our relationship with the community in view of developing a more holistic approach at the scale of the SouthEast part of the Mount Cameroon National Park where Batoke and Limbe are located.

We will also develop and implement a mass education campaign and produce original education billboards in and around Limbe.

To further support new green business initiatives that will be beneficial both for the Limbe Wildlife Centre and the community, we will develop a composting project to provide organic fertilizers to community members to encourage them to convert into organic agriculture and reforestation and reduce encroachment into the forest of the Mount Cameroun National Park (see Annexe)

Peggy Motsch Manager, Limbe Wildlife Centre

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INDICATORS OF SUCCESS OF THE GREEN PROJECT 2016-17 Cost per kg (XAF)

Women Women Women

80 80 60

9,721 2,484 29,869 42,074

777,680 198,720 1,792,140 2,768,540

10,433 15,668 32,818 58,919

823,440 1,227,360 1,942,920 4,057,160

10,660 25,100 37,270 73,030

852,800 2,008,000 2,236,200 5,097,000

11,385 43,652 39,369 94,406

910,800 3,492,120 2,362,140 6,765,060

Wild herbaceous plants Aframomum sp.

Costus sp.

Subtotal Wild herbaceous

Ex-hunters Women/Men

≈ 472 50

9,779 3,274 13,053

4,611,000 163,700 4,774,700

9,594 9,712 19,306

4,524,000 480,150 5,009,600

9,594 8,327 17,921

4,524,000 416,350 4,940,350

10,517 6,477 16,994

4,960,176 323,850 5,284,026

Invasive plants Trumpet wood Subtotal Invasive plants

Women/Men

45

692 692

31,140 31,140

9,209 9,209

414,405 414,405

7,887 7,887

354,915 354,915

5,763 5,763

259,335 259,335

55,819

7,574,380 97 144,964 78,086 126 10.5 1.3

87,434

9,481,165 101 181,458 93,873 158 13.2 1.6

Total NB permanent members Average weekly incomes Average incomes per permanent member Equivalent monthly salaries (60,000 XAF/mth) Equivalent monthly employment Equivalent monthly salaries per member

Costs (XAF)

Weight (kg)

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2018-19

Members

Products Crop by-products Cassava leaves Papaya leaves Potato leaves Subtotal Crop by-products

Weight (kg)

2017-18 Costs (XAF)

Weight (kg)

Costs (XAF)

98,838 10,392,265 108 198,895 96,225 173 14.4 1.6

Weight (kg)

Costs (XAF)

117,162 12,308,421 110 235,568 111,895 205 17.1 1.9

Table 1. Weight and costs per food item and par period.

Comments: Since 2015, the amount of food and the number of participants from the community has continuously increased. In 5 years, the equivalent of monthly incomes generated per member through the project has increased by 66%, and now, the project employs the equivalent of 17 permanent staff from the community. Overall, the project guaranteed 1.9 monthly salaries to each of the 110 permanent members (+20% in 5 years)

One-year report: Community-based Green project

2018

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2018

4000 3000 2000 1000

1 7 13 19 25 31 37 43 49 55 61 67 73 79 85 91 97 103 109 115 121 127 133 139 145 151 157 163 169 175 181 187 193 199 205 211 217 223 229 235 241 247 253 259 265 271 277 283 289 295

0

Cassava leaves

Papaya leaves

Potato leaves

Aframomum sp.

Costus sp.

Trumpet wood

Figure 1. Increase of amount (kg) of food enrichment provided by the community of Batoke since January 2015 (week 1) until 1st September 2020 (week 297).

Costus sp.

3%

Trumpet wood 2%

Cassava leaves 8%

Papaya leaves 28%

Aframomum sp.

40% Potato leaves 19%

Figure 2. Contribution of each food items to the revenues generated this year.

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OUR WILDLIFE POPULATION BENEFITING FROM THE PROJECT Classification PRIMATES Great ape

Species

Scientific names

[UICN]1 | Class2

Central African Chimpanzee Nigeria-Cameroon Chimpanzee Western Lowland Gorilla

Pan troglodytes troglodytes Pan troglodytes ellioti Gorilla gorilla gorilla

[EN] | A [EN] | A [CR] | A

Drill Mandrill Olive baboon

Mandrillus leucophaeus Mandrillus sphinx Papio anubis

[EN] | A [VU] | A [LC] | C

Agile mangabey Red-capped Mangabey

Cercocebus agilis Cercocebus torquatus

[LC] | A [VU] | A

Mona monkey Moustached monkey Patas monkey Putty-nosed monkey Red-eared monkey Red-rumped Putty-nosed monkey Tantalus monkey

Cercopithecus mona Cercopithecus cephus cephus Erythrocebus patas Cercopithecus nictitans nictitans Cercopithecus erythrotis Cercopithecus nictitans ludio Chlorocebus tantalus

[LC] | C [LC] | C [LC] | C [LC] | C [VU] | A [LC] | C [LC] | C

Cephalophus dorsalis Philantomba monticola Tragelaphus scriptus

[NT] | B [LC] | C [LC] | B

Civettictis civetta

[LC] | B

Psittacus erithacus

[EN] | A

Pelusios niger Osteolaemus tetraspis Kinixys homeana Crocodylus niloticus Astrochelys radiata

[LC] | C [VU] | A [VU] | A [LC] | A [CR] | A

Papionid

Mangabey

Guenon

UNGULATES Bay Duiker Blue Duiker Bush Buck OTHER MAMMALS African civet BIRDS African grey parrot REPTILES Black-hinged terrapin Dwarf crocodile Home's hinged tortoise Nile crocodile Radiated tortoise Total 1 2

check conservation status at iucnredlist.org: CR = critically endangered; EN = endangered; VU = vulnerable classes of protection as defined by Cameroonian wildlife laws: A, B and C. Class A species benefit from the highest degree of protection

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Total 195 57 11 31 15 91 74 9 8 11 4 7 36 11 1 4 2 3 7 7 3 1 1 1 1 1 167 167 7 2 2 1 1 1 273

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FINANCIAL BREAKDOWN 2019-2020 Expenditures Categories XAF USD Labour costs 910,900 1,656 Community suppliers 12,308,421 22,379 Gasoil 963,900 1,753 Outreach programme 200,000 364 Vehicle maintenance & Logistics 543,400 988 Fixed costs 1,123,500 2,043 TOTAL 16,050,121 XAF $29,182 NB: conversion rates: 1 USD = 550 XAF ; 1 EUR = 655 XAF

EUR 1,389 18,764 1,469 305 828 1,713 24,468 â‚Ź

Fixed costs Vehicle 7% maintenance Labour costs 3% 6% Outreach programme 1% Gasoil 6%

Community suppliers 77%

Figure 3. Breakdown of expenditures.

Comments: This year, 77% of the budget was used to remunerate community members (an increase of 5% compared to last year).

The fund allocated to education activities dropped as from March 2020, we have been unable to conduct meetings or workshops with our community partner, apart from distribution of face masks and awareness on biosecurity measures.

We also managed to keep the maintenance cost of our vehicle low although it is getting old and might have to be renewed within the next 2 years.

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FUTURE GOALS & OBJECTIVES In the next year, depending on the sanitary situation worldwide and in Cmzroon as regards COVIDF-19, we would like to continue to engage the community further in conservation by hosting a Family Nature Club, to change behaviours and enhance their relationship with the nature around them.

We have started to develop new initiatives to engage communities more largely by initiating a mass education campaign. Building on the 2019 experience and the inauguration of the #ProtectWildlife Campaign, we will multiply the initiatives and engage the community members involved in the green project to be stewards of our awareness campaign. They will undertake small group awareness workshops and further discussion at the Limbe Wildlife Centre and in Batoke.

Challenges &Opportunities A major challenge to overcome next year will be to secure sufficient funds to sustain the project that benefits both communities and wildlife in rehabilitation with the pandemic becoming an aspect of our daily lives to take into consideration.

Such a project will also offer additional employment opportunities through recruiting more farmers to provide food for the animals in such an enclosure. If we are to convert this ex-hunting community to a conservation community, we must continue this important alternative livelihood project and encourage new initiatives.

Finally, by initiating our composting project, we hope to create a local value chain of organic agriculture to sustain community livelihood, improve soil quality and increase community Resilience to Climate Change (OA/R2CC; see Annexe for more info) Projected budget 2020-2021 Next year, due to COVID-19, we will report part of our outreach program towards the production of large education billboards. We also predict that the number of new members will stabilize at around 110 members. The total budget is projected with an increase of 6%.

2020-2021 planned Categories USD EUR Labour costs 1,825.9 1,531.0 Community suppliers 23,497.9 19,702.3 Gasoil 2,055.7 1,723.7 Outreach programme 2,792.7 2,341.6 Vehicle maintenance 856.6 718.2 Fixed costs 2,335.5 1,958.2 TOTAL 33,364.3 27,975.0

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ANNEXE: Organic agriculture to sustain community livelihood, improve soil quality and increase community Resilience to Climate Change (OA/R2CC) Before the pandemic, the solid organic waste from animals was treated externally by a company, which, unfortunately, was not specialized in treating such biologic material. A few months ago, we transferred the composting area in the farmland of the Limbe Wildlife Centre. All organic waste produced by the animal sections is now disposed of there to prevent outside pollution and improve our waste management system.

Now, we intend to produce high-quality manure that can be used domestically to increase our food security. We will also use the manure to plant trees in the centre to reduce soil erosion alongside the Limbe river. In June, we already planted 50 fruit trees inside the farm.

These trees will complement other existing crops: sugar cane, banana, maize, palm trees, and will increase our production using eco-friendly organic agriculture practices.

In the future, we plan on scaling up the project to encourage a tree nursery and reforestation and promote organic agriculture in local communities to encourage sustainable farming to increase food security for families, reduce deforestation, preserve the quality of soil and water of Mount Cameroon and mitigate climate change.

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Financial needs First, we need to build a 600m2 roof and a protective wall. The estimated cost for such activity is 3.5M FCFA ($6,400), consisting mostly of investment costs which will benefit the centre and the local community but can also serve as a practical showcase to promote waste management and reduce environmental pollution in urban areas.

In the mid-term, we would like to set an aerated static pile system with a unit of 9m3 each to later extend to 4-5 units (to cover an area of 80m2). The system will require energy, ideally from a solar panel, but also pipes and fan, an electrical system, and a concrete slab of 100m2 under the roof for storing the compost. The estimated investment cost is 6. 5M FCFA ($11,900).

Methods We plan to develop and upgrade the functioning of our compositing in three phases. In Phase I, currently ongoing, we use a traditional composting methodology consisting of 4-6 weeks process. We need to build a 600 m2 traditional palm roof to protect the compost from the rainfall. We also need to build a protective wall around the composting area to protect from the flooding that occurs on average 10 days a year during the heavy rains. In Phase 2, we want to improve our efficiency by using aerated static pile composting. This method requires more material and equipment, but render composting very efficient: because of better control of aeration and temperature, it more efficiently treats and decontaminates the waste. The composting process is also much quicker (1 week against 4-6 weeks for the traditional method) and does not require long storage before use (2 weeks is enough). It also reduces the workload and does not require manually turn the composting mixture every week. Instead, the air is blown under the compost pile to provide enough oxygen for degradation by aerobic microorganisms, dry the compost pile, and better control temperature and remove heat. In Phase 3, we will convert the area under the roof into a storing hangar where the compost can be stored while we use 4-5 units of aerated static pile system.

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